Presidential elections were held in Iran on 14 June 2013. Hassan Rouhani won with a landslide victory, elected in the first round of voting with 50.88% of the vote. Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf finished second with 16.46% of the vote. Nearly 36.792 million Iranians voted, 72.77% of eligible voters.

The Guardian Council screened 680 registered candidates, approving eight to run in the election; Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, Ali Akbar Velayati, Saeed Jalili, Mohsen Rezaee, Mohammad Gharazi, Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Reza Aref. Haddad-Adel and Aref later withdrew from the race in the days leading up to the election. Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not able to run for re-election as he was limited to two terms or 8 years in office under the Iranian constitution.

Iran''s tenth presidential election was held on 12 June 2009, with incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad running against three challengers. The next morning the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran''s official news agency, announced that with two-thirds of the votes counted, Ahmadinejad had won the election with 62% of the votes cast, and that Mir-Hossein Mousavi had received 34% of the votes cast. The European Union, the United Kingdom the United States, and several western countries expressed concern over alleged irregularities during the vote, and many analysts and journalists from the United States, Europe and other western based media voiced doubts about the authenticity of the results. Meanwhile many OIC member states, as well as Russia, China, India, and Brazil, congratulated Ahmadinejad on his victory.

The President of Iran is the country''s highest directly elected official, the chief of the executive branch, and the second most important position after the Supreme Leader. Duties are similar to heads of governments in other countries, except that the armed forces, Chief judiciary system, state television, and other key governmental organizations are under the control of the Supreme Leader of Iran. It is also an informal custom that cabinet ministers for sensitive departments like foreign relations and intelligence are coordinated with the Supreme Leader.

Any Iranian citizen born in Iran, believing in God and the official religion of Iran (Islam), who has always been loyal to the Constitution and is above 21 years of age may register as a presidential candidate. An institution called the Election Monitoring Agency (EMA) and managed by the Guardian Council vets registered candidates (in the 2009 election 36,000 people signed up as candidates) and selects a handful to run in the election. The Guardian Council does not announce publicly the reason for rejections of particular candidates although those reasons are explained to each candidate. Females who register as candidates have invariably been excluded from standing for election by the Council.

Electoral law

This section may be confusing or unclear to readers. In particular, words appear to be missing in the first sentence. (June 2013)

One of the issues that has been raised in the pre-election debate over electoral reforms, especially regarding enforcement, situations of candidates. Executive of elections under previous law was ministry of interior (Government) and there were statements about changing of maintaining law. In addition, the law provided that the candidates must be political men and the meaning of men was not known. The changes began after the protests to the previous election. According to Iranian law, candidates more than 75 years old are eligible to run but their health issues must be checked by the Guardian Council.

The new act of the elections was approved by the parliament on 17 December 2012 and was significated by speaker of the parliament, Ali Larijani, to the president for official implementation. Some of the changes are explained:

Act Before After (changed)

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Ministry of Interior must announce the results

Ministry of Interior is the only official reference of the election.

Electoral Commission will announce the results after the Ministry of Interior confirmation*.

Ministry of Interior, under the Electoral Commission are the official references of the election.

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Debates can be recorded.

Debates must be live.

If extortion about one candidate, he has the mandate to defend him/herself in next programs.

Timeline

7 May – The official registration of candidates began at the ministry of interior.

11 May – The time for registration was ended at 18:00 IRDT.

21 May – The final list of candidates was announced by the Minister of Interior, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar. A number of 8 candidates are eligible to participate in the election.

24 May – Official propagation campaigns for the final candidates began.

13 June – End of campaigns.

14 June – Election date.

15 June – Official results announced by Interior Ministry with Hassan Rouhani elected as the seventh President of Iran.